


When Venom meets Strife

by Anjelica



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Blood and Violence, Gen, Kidnapping, Other, Torture, and this is far longer than what they had planned, the author would like to preface this with saying she is very sorry, the authors hasn't written in a lifetime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 12:24:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17224052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anjelica/pseuds/Anjelica
Summary: Fill for the Symbrock Fest @ Dreamwidth. The prompt was what would happen if Eddie and Venom met other Klyntars, this is my fill.It is darker are more violent than I originally thought so PLEASE read the tags.Rated E for violence and torture.





	When Venom meets Strife

Strife falling on Earth roughly twenty years before Venom had been a mere chance, some would call it destiny, Strife does.

They should have never arrived there, their destination had been another galaxy, but they did, because they were meant to find their perfect host

“I don’t believe in destiny. We shape our future with our hands, _amore mio_ ”

“ **It doesn’t matter beloved, I believe for the both of us** ”.

The symbiote was riding a comet with other of his species, they were all huddled together, crawling around famished and angry like worms, swarming in desperate need of food and hiding from those stronger and ready to feed on the frail ones, far far away from Terra. Strife had hidden in a small cavity, hissing against the others who tried to steal his spot and tortured by the hunger. If Klyntars believed in God, he would have taken His name in vain, but they were alone in the moving mass of the other symbiotes, their hive mind buzzing impatiently for their next meal. They couldn’t leave their sanctuary to prey on the others, if they had, they wouldn’t have been on the unstable piece of rock during a turbulence, he wouldn’t have been thrown away from the main comet and wouldn’t have met his destiny. In hindsight their kind should have already found a better model of transportation, they had conquered and destroyed so many civilizations, they should have stolen some technology

“That’s your problem” their host would say, rubbing their protruding head with a finger “Too keen on mass destruction to take advantage of all the knowledge and built something more durable”

“ **We’ve taken advantage of what you offer, we believe** ” they would say affectionately

“Because we are perfectly matched” their host would answer “Made for one another constellations away”

 **“Yes”** Strife would purr, covering their host with their cardinal red body in a tight hug.

They shouldn’t have made it to Earth, they always marvelled at their sheer dumb luck. The rock they were inhabiting had no propulsion and, for the longest time, they met nothing they could eat, while the rock gently floated until Earth’s gravity ensnared it. Strife had been so weak they didn’t understand they were approaching a planet, full of life and with a potentially poisonous atmosphere. On Klyntar all symbiotes knew this could be a possibility, albeit rare, their unique physiology helped them survive almost everywhere, but there were exceptions and they were taught to find shelter in a living being immediately, no matter how small, before starting to feed.

The rock Strife had ridden was so small and insignificant that fell on Earth without catching anyone’s attention and the symbiote was so weak they didn’t even register the poisonous atmosphere, their nervous system still ringing from the crash and their cells screaming for food. They couldn’t even move and, when their breathing system had started to fail after a handful of minutes in contact with the air, Strife had wanted to just laugh at the irony of it: a living planet and it was killing them. But their training was engraved in their nervous system, so they forced their screaming cells to move away from the rock. They were too preoccupied with survival to notice the field of green they had landed on; they would, much more time later, marvel at Earth’s colours, staring at the photos on their host’s geography books: how multicoloured Earth was, and those were just reproductions, when they had the possibility to see with their host’s eyes the marvels Terra offered, they were rendered speechless, but this was in a future they couldn’t even fathom, while crawling painfully on a grass so green it was blinding.

Strife had forced their senses to overdrive in hope to find signs of a living creature they could hide inside, but all they could hear was the sound of the wind; they were losing whatever string of hope they had, when they noticed the wind rustling against something, with the last of their strength they moved towards that direction, too blinded by the pain to see what stood against the wind. Strife was ready to inhabit anything, even a tree or a smaller plant, if that meant survival until a better suited host would appear, at least they would bid themselves some time and respite from the poison burning their respiratory system.

Their host had been a child at that time, a lonely kid with the vast expanse of summer in front of them, laying down the grass with a book on their face to shield their eyes from the blazing sun and a creaky bicycle abandoned nearby. They were just dozing off, away from the other children; their plan was to finish the book, but the field was silent, the air hot and the slight breeze had lulled them into closing their eyes, not that being fully awake would have made any difference, when engrossed in a story they wouldn’t notice a single thing, and Strife, just a ball of desperate goo, wouldn’t have catch their attention. At that time Strife had no notion of the difference between a child and an adult, they didn’t even know they were on Earth, a planet so insignificant his people, and all the other species in space, had no idea of their existence, but the living, breathing creature they could see through the pain, looked like the best host they could ever desire.

With a mad dash Strife covered the last meters between them and latched to the warm, sweaty skin. **“Safe!”** was their first thought **“Hungry!”** was the second and broadcasted this thoughts with such a force, the child had woken up with a scream of terror. Strife shouldn’t have made their presence known, but the feelings they were experiencing were so overwhelming, they couldn’t help themselves; they weren’t going to die, not now, they had found a host they could use and fester on.

“Who are you?” the child had screamed “Where are you?” They could hear a voice but couldn’t see a person near them, blinded by the sun, but could hear the cavernous chanting of “ **Hungry! Hungry! Hungry!** ” in their hears, no, their head and screamed again, deafened by the voice of the symbiote.

Strife had taken advantage of their host terror to gain control of the body and made it leap towards the small bag on the bike, containing food and water. That had been their host’s afternoon snack, their grandma had prepared the two ham sandwiches and the slices of cake with all her love and Strife tore through the small pink bag and ate everything, paper napkins covering the food included; it wasn’t enough, they needed more, needed to be stronger to keep the upper hand. Luckily their host was still too terrified to try and wrangle control back, so Strife had used the small body to hunt for food.

On their hands and knees, tongue lolling unnaturally long out of their mouth and drool cascading from sharp teeth, they had scented the air and started to race. On a nearby three, they had eaten two squirrels and tree lizards unfortunate enough to cross their path; Strife had devoured them alive, ripping the heads and then crunching on the bodies, licking the blood on their chin and fingers. They still hunger, but it wasn’t as bad as they had landed, and Strife had stilled, hands and knees green with grass, the screams of their host muted.

They felt at ease.

That had never happened.

Inhabiting a host, no matter the race, had always been like wearing a dress either a lick too small or too big, Strife had once explained their host, never the perfect size

“ **But when we were on our hands and knees under the sun, we felt perfect. In that moment we knew those of us who believed in the perfect host myth, were right** ” they had explained to their host years later, when their speech had evolved, shaped by their host voracious readings. “ **Almost all of us believe in the parasitic bond, only a small fraction, hated and flighted to near extinction, thought otherwise. They preached the existence of a perfect host for any of us, their cells made to pair with ours to make us live forever” Strife had said, curling around their host’s neck like a scarf “If found, they would give us all we might need** ”

“Why didn’t you believe them? It’s a much saner way to live, instead of hopping planets, destroying civilization” their host had scratched under their head, Strife had shrugged

“ **Klyntars have a hive mind, unlike you boring humans. To go against the hive means to go against all of us. Your childish idea of free thoughts and speech doesn’t apply to us. We are a we.** ”

“Childish, eh?” their host had flooded their bond with mirth “So, why are you still here?”

Strife had bristled at that and hidden inside their host’s body

“ **Not hiding!** ”

“If you say so, you big scary alien” their host had laughed “Come on, we thought we were hungry for heads. You know the rapist scumbag we had been shadowing for a month, will be at Silvia’s party tonight”

Strife had perked at the news. They managed an almost head free diet, but for some people, like the asshole who had assaulted a thirteen years old girl, they were more than happy to make an exception.

They were enrolled in a big university at the time of this conversation and Strife still marvelled at how far they had come, since their host had been almost catatonic when the symbiote had been hit with the knowledge of having found their perfect match. They had spent all the afternoon under the unforgiving sun, to persuade the child’s mind to interact with theirs, that they meant no harm, that they were their friend. At that word they had a response, small and frightened, but still the proof their host wanted to speak with them

“Friend? My friend?” the child had shily asked

“ **Yes! Forever!** ” the symbiote had latched at the stray thought of companionship that had entered their host’s mind “ **Together! Forever!** ”

“Do you promise?” the child had asked with a trembling voice

**“Yes!”**

The child had started crying, startling the alien who didn’t know what to do, but curling around the smaller body, making soothing noises.

They had grown together, their cells slowly mingling together to the point they were each other structure, indivisible. They went to school as one, managed friendship and rare boyfriends until they understood they just needed one another, no other person could love them the way they did. They had scared and fought bullies and even killed together when the need had arisen, strengthening their bond to the point where “we” had become the norm and “I” a social form they had to use not to be discovered. They had sailed through puberty together and decided on a career after long nights of thoughts. They had their fights but lived with the knowledge they were unique and stronger as a “we”.

 

When Venom and the other symbiotes fell on Earth, they were in their office, their secretary diligently jotting down their words

 **“OTHERS!”** Strife had screamed in their head with such a force their body had recoiled from the desk, rattling the frames and the computer screen, startling Mrs. Collins

“Is everything all right?” the woman had asked, eying her boss carefully

“Yes” they had managed to answer “I’ll be back soon”.

They had marched to the restroom trying to appear less scared than they felt, they even greeted some colleagues but when they had closed the door of the bathroom, they had found out that their hands were shaking.

Strife had warned their host of the possibility that others of his kind might arrive

“ **It is such an uncommon possibility. This planet is so useless we bet no one knows of their existence, it could be destroyed and nobody in the universe would even care** ”

“Hey Vogon, we live here!”

“ **Just because we refuse space travel** ”

“We are not having this conversation again. Jesus help us!”

“ **We don’t believe in Jesus** ”

“But we love watching priests”

“ **When they are on their knees begging for a forgiveness that will never come, they are quite entertaining** ”.

Although near impossible, Strife had felt the need to want their host about the possibility of an invasion. They would obviously know, they would feel other Klyntars

“ **But they should never feel us! Surprise is our only weapon** ”.

They would go into a sort of hibernation, they wouldn’t be able to communicate with their host but would wake up when needed and would be able to lurk on the hive mind and speak to their host through dreams.

The thought of not being able to communicate had terrorized their host to the point they refused to speak of the plan further; Strife had needed a lot a coaxing to have them accept the radio silence. But as their grandma used to say, “One thing is to talk about death, another is to die”, when faced with the impromptu silence in the sterile white bathroom, Strife’s host had broken into tears. They had never felt so alone since before their union; they could always feel the symbiote inside of them, moving around their body or giving their unwarted two cents, but now it felt like Strife had deserted them, they were alone with their thoughts after twenty years.

They had cried some more, hugging their body tight even though they knew what to do, for the longest moment they didn’t know whether they could act following the plan, or not; how could they even breath without their half? The silence violent and deafening so deafening, how could they? They remained crouched down for the longest stretch of time just crying; with a herculean effort they stood up and tried to wash the traces of tears from their face, their Strife needed them to be strong, so they could fight and return to their life. They took the deepest breath, feeling the lungs expand and then retract

“We need to go” they said staring at their reflection “Time to go hunting some aliens”.

But they were wrong. For six months they were forced to live together but separated from one another, communicating only through dreams

“ **They are all captured, all but one, the team leader; they are trying to reach the others, but they are all slowly dying** ”

“Then let’s kill this team leader and let the captives to their destiny. We don’t need to live like this any longer, _amore mio_ ”

“ **No! It is too risky. The captives will starve on their own, but the team leader is too dangerous for us to fight; we need to find another way to destroy him** ”.

And so their life went on, meetings after meetings, until Strife’s host felt that the only thing keeping them in line was sheer spite. The silence in their head deafening; they had thought they would get used to it, but they didn’t, as the days passed it had become even worst. They had been so used to hear Strife’s running commentary that they had no idea how to live without it, how to bear with the useless chat of the humans around them, the constant string of “Blah blah blah” droning in their ears when the only voice they wanted to hear was silent.

They couldn’t wait to have the symbiotes at their mercy to make them pay for all the pain and loneliness they had subjected them to “We’ll kill them with fire” they said, “Slowly and painfully”.

 

The night Venom escaped the LIFE Foundation, Strife’s host woke up violently and ran to their laptop, they needed to book a flight to San Francisco as soon as possible. Luckily their boss gave them the holiday days they requested, they had so many Mr Stillson had no qualms with it, Strife’s host wouldn’t know what they would have done if the man had refused. They had packed a suitcase in a mad rush, leaving their apartment a mess of clothes and unwashed dishes.

“ **The one that escaped is gaining strength slowly within their host** ” Strife said while hugging their host tight. They were dreaming the filed where they had first met; they were under a tree, desperately entwined into one another, but their host was an adult now “ **And the team leader is close to San Francisco** ”

“We should have never waited. We should have killed the captives; that ridiculous Carlton Drake could have never stopped us. We could have infiltrated his LIFE Foundation during one of those stupid tours he loves to have, we wouldn’t even have to show our true form” they frown

“ **You are right beloved** ” Strife said caressing their hairs “ **We had played defence for too long. I am sorry. I was so scared of losing you** ” their grip on their host stronger now that they were awakening “ **We go after the fugitive first. They should be weak still, they wouldn’t be able to fully communicate or control the human they are using. They will be easy prey** ”.

But their plans were thwarted by the sheer chaos Venom and Eddie Brock managed to havoc. Strife and their host were shocked by their disregard for subtlety, thanks to the Gods they didn’t believe in, those two would be dead soon and the risk of being discovered would be reduced to a big fat zero. Between the meltdown at the fancy restaurant, the motorcycle chase and the destruction of the rocket, it had been a miracle the runaway symbiote hadn’t been filmed or seen by someone ready to spill their beans on the internet. That the couple of idiots had killed Riot and Drake, had surprised Strife and their host

“ **They were a subordinate, their only cue should have been of following their leader’s orders, not killing them** ” Strife had manifested a head out of their host’s right shoulder “ **This shouldn’t have happened** ”.

They were watching the flames destroying the LIFE foundation while the firemen were trying to contain the damage on the big screen their hotel room offered

“Maybe they wanted to become the leader themselves?” their host was dumbfounded, but happy to hear their half’s rumbly voice

“ **It doesn’t work like that** ” Strife curled around their host’s neck, enjoying the contact after months of abstinence “ **They were a minion on Klyntar I suppose, they shouldn’t have what is needed to rebel** ”

“Then why?” their host popped another piece of chocolate in their mouth.

They had raided Ghiraldelli, since they couldn’t approach the runaway symbiote and their host, for now

“ **This is peculiar, and I don’t like it** ” Strife bristled with restrained energy

“Do you think they survived the explosion?”

“ **Yes, but they are in stasis, trying to heal** ”

“And that reporter is in the hospital, guarded by cops” their host puffed angrily “Untouchable by now”.

That night Strife had curled on their host’s sleeping form. They didn’t like the surprising course of action taken by the other Klyntar, they made no sense whatsoever: instead of following orders they destroyed the only way other symbiotes could use to invade Earth and then almost died to shield their host. Could that… but Strife aborted the thought before it could form. It couldn’t. The runaway probably wanted to consume Earth by themselves, without sharing, even though it would leave them stranded on a dead planet, once they were done.

“ **Stupid. And dangerous** ” they growled, their host shook on the soft bed and Strife curled around their shoulders to calm them and then expanded and glided against their host’s back to spoon them. They needed to kill the reporter before the runaway could gain strength.

 

Eddie was discharged four days after the explosion, he still felt his ears ringing, but he was, otherwise, healthy.

The police had grilled him with questions after questions, but he had managed to lie and frame himself just like a reporter who was still following a story and couldn’t have the means to destroy a rocket. Point was, Eddie Brock had never been good at adulting, but the years spent in the journalist gig, and his abusive father, had forged him into a great liar, capable of mastering his craft, even though he was consumed by the knowledge Venom was dead. When the cops, the endless parade of doctors and nurses and even Anne and Dan, came to his bedside, he managed to put up a _façade_ , when left alone, he would curl into himself, arm tight around his midsection, and cry softly, until asleep.

Anne and Dan had been by is side and had even asked him if he wanted to crash at their place, at least for a couple of days, in case he needed something, but he couldn’t bear it. Anne and Dan were so in tune with one another, it would only remind him of the companion he had lost.

Eddie knew he was being melodramatic, he had been bounded to Venom for two days, but for the first time in his entire life, he hadn’t felt alone. Even though the alien had almost killed him, they were ready to betray their race for him, a loser reporter with zero future; they had seen something him worth staying, worth dying for. How could Eddie hope to find this with anyone else? How could he keep on living when he was alone beyond human comprehension? He was the loser surviving half, he should have died, and Venom lived. No, he needed to be alone an mourn, Anne and Dan would be concerned if they saw him have a melt down an he didn’t want to concern them with his shitty life, more than he had already done.

His bike was out of commission and Eddie decided to catch a tram to return home, foregoing Dan’s offer to share the cab ride. In insight, that had been the best for the gentle doctor, because Strife and their host had been lurking nearby the hospital, ready to catch Eddie the moment he was alone. The former reported and the symbiotic duo boarded the same tram, Eddie being too focused on his bleak thoughts to notice his stalker, like he had with Doctor Skirth, or the weakest sign of danger form Venom, still is their healing slumber, but alerted by the presence of anther symbiote. When he arrived at the stop near his home, or whatever was left of it, Eddie boarded off, his head down, unaware of the figure on his heels. Tasked with the choice of the longer path, or a dark shortcut, the former reporter decided on the latter. It was a faster route but was between tall buildings and even the sun of the day, couldn’t lighten it properly, which was the best for the plans of the bonded pair, who melted in the shadows to let Strife emerge.

Eddie had arrived at a particularly dark corner when felt the hairs at the back of his head stand

“Listen buddy, I don’t have money on me” he said turning around.

On some levels he hoped that was a mugger, maybe they would have mercy on him and kill him out of this misery; he wouldn’t have expected to see a 9’’ cardinal red symbiote, with scary white teeth and a lolling tongue

“ _ **Hello Eddie. Finally!**_ ”

Eddie didn’t have the time to scream. A huge paw slammed him against the brick wall and he fainted.

The throbbing, blinding pain in his head woke him up, opening his eyes caused another influx of pain when a slice of light hit his eyes and his arms hurt from being cuffed to a long piece of chain dangling from the ceiling. He was in some sort of warehouse or abandoned building and, apparently, shirtless. What new hell was that now? For a moment he had thought he had seen a symbiote, but he must have been wrong

“ _ **He woke up**_ ” Eddie’s eyes moved painfully to the figure in front of him, dimly touched by the light

“I…” a rough cough cut his speech, his mouth felt like sandpaper “I don’t know who you are, but we need to go. It’s dangerous here” his throat hurt fiercely.

“ _ **But we know who you are, Eddie**_ ”.

The figure came under direct light and he could see a tall woman wearing an old hoodie and worn out jeans, her dark hairs up in a simple hairdo; Eddie jerked back when he heard the distorted voice and saw the eyes flash red and then widen to white, much like Venom’s.

“This! You shouldn’t…” he desperately tried to free his arms “You are all dead!” he screamed.

Venom had died In vain!

The slap turned his head violently on his right side, Eddie could taste blood as the woman spoke in his hear

“ _ **We don’t belong to the invading group. How dare you confound us to those who wanted this planet dead?**_ ”

The voice was weird, it seemed like Anne’s when bonded to Venom, but different, like two sounds, one deeper and the other lighter, mashed together to a more androgynous tone; in another circumstance Eddie would have probably appreciated it, but bound and helpless, gave him the chills.

“I don’t understand. Who are you?” his voice sounded broken and scared at his own ears.

When the woman moved, Eddie reflexively tried to hide his face, in case she wanted to hit him again

“ _ **We are Strife**_ ” she said, standing proud “ _ **And you had made our life miserable these last six months**_ ”

“I don’t know what I did!”

That seemed to be the wrong answer, the woman started to punch him in the gut until she stumbled backward as if forced by an external hand, not that Eddie could see that. He was bent forward as much as his bound arms made him, coughing helplessly.

“ **You should excuse us** ” the voice was deeper this time, much like Venom’s “ **We had been on edge for so long, we have a short reign on our emotions** ”.

When Eddie managed to finally stare at the woman again, he could see through watery eyes a cardinal red head floating from her right shoulder

“You made our life hell Brock” the woman spat, her voice angry, but light, in comparison to her symbiote’s “We should kill you now and be done with it”.

She bent to retrieve a big red jug. When she opened it, Eddie could smell the gasoline inside and started to trash desperately

“I don’t know what I did! Wait please! What did I do?” he was blabbing out of his mind “Tell me!” he didn’t want to die like this!

“ **We should tell him** ” Strife’s voice was calm, almost soothing

“We’ve lost enough time with him”. The woman was angry, Eddie could read it in the jerky way she took a step forward and two backwards and then capped the jug with a sneer, the soles of her combat boots scraped on the concrete as if she was kicking an invisible object. The reporter took a shaky breath, his brain was desperately trying to find a way out of his predicament, but was at loss.

“ **We fell on Earth many years ago** ” the symbiote had started “ **And found our true host. We were lost and at the verge of death, when we found one another.** ”

Eddie could sense affection in the tone and the way the woman rubbed her cheek against the symbiote’s head

“Then you happened” her tone was icy and under that control, Eddie could hear a sliver of an accent he couldn’t trace “Came to our home and almost destroyed it”.

She had approached him again and Eddie had to fight the urge to hide his face again. He could feel his left side swell

“I didn’t do a thing!” he was sweating profusely, his hands uselessly trying to move “I was in a fucking dump!”

Her hand cupped his jaw, her nail biting into his skin and he grit his teeth against the pain

“The symbiote inside of you. And the others” she grasped tighter and Eddie bet she was drawing blood

“They are dead. All of them!”

 _Even my symbiote, my Venom_ , he thought sadly, trying to fight the tears

“Liar!” she slapped him again. Eddie could taste blood in his mouth again “They still live inside of you!”

She hit him again, savagely with her fists and the only thing Eddie could do was fruitlessly try to dodge and bear the pain, while she screamed and hit and hit and hit. Much like his father had done.

Who would ever believe Carl Brock’s brand of tough love could come handy?

When Strife forced their host to distance themselves, Eddie’s face was a mask of blood and bruises had started blossoming all over his front. In the miasma of his own pain and blood, a thought stuck with Eddie: Venom wasn’t gone. Venom wasn’t gone!!!

“ **You see** ” Strife had extended the tendril supporting their head to be face to face with the human “ **If they had died in the fire, you wouldn’t even seen us. But they lived, and that is a problem. The attempt at invasion I understand, I once was like them before I found my half, but destroying the rocket, that is off-putting. That goes against our training, that is dangerous and uncontrollable behaviour and all the mayhem they had caused? We had risked being discovered!** ”

Through the blood seeping from somewhere over his eyebrows, Eddie tried to focus on Strife’s ugly mug. He knew he should feel fear, but the only feeling is relief because he was not alone, Venom was still somewhere inside of himself.

“That’s enough _amore mio_. Let’s get over with it” she grabbed the jug again and walked calmly against Eddie’s bleeding form “Let’s get over with this and go home”.

Eddie didn’t know if she had managed to break some of his teeth or his jaw, but he had trouble talking; the only thing he could do was babbling, half bent forward, while blood and spit dribbled down his mouth.

“What?” She grabbed him by his hairs and moved her hear closer to his face

“Cha… changed their… mind” Eddie managed to say.

He didn’t know if he could focus for long

“Who changed their mind?” She eyed him curiously “He is done for”.

She let go of his hairs and Eddie’s head just fell forward. The former reporter had not faint, yet, but was dangerously close

 **“Wait!”** the woman put her hands on her hips, huffing, while Strife eyed him with distrust “ **Who did?** ”

Eddie had to fight the throes of dizziness. This was probably his last chance at survival

“Venom” he managed to croak

“He is lying” the jug of gasoline entered Eddie’s field of vision again, a great incentive at talking

“Said” a chough had him splatter blood all over her hoodie “Said we are losers, but together we could be more” he coughed again but the duo wasn’t paying him attention anymore.

“Could that be?” for the first time the woman was dubious. With different words her _amore_ had convinced her younger self into symbiosis, but the bottom line was the same

“ **I don’t know** ” Strife was pensive “ **It would explain the erratic behaviour** ”

“Or maybe there are just manipulating him into submission.”

For the first time she truly stared at him, bleeding and barely able to support his weight through his bound arms

“But he wouldn’t have any use for that right?”

 **“Right”** her Strife answered “ **Too much work when he could have just controlled him** ”

“He is worse for wear but doesn’t look overused. Not like the other hosts you saw through the hive mind. Look how” she stopped for a moment, seeking the right words “ _Ben_ _pasciuto_ he is”.

Fuck you, Eddie wanted to say, I almost died, and you fucking hit me, he wanted to scream, but tried to focus on feeling Venom inside of him. Nothing.

“ _ **There is only one way to know**_ ” the weird voice was back as strong hands grabbed his face “ _ **This is going to hurt**_ ”.

The only thing Eddie could do was screaming until he lost consciousness.

When he came back to his senses, he was on his back, still shirtless and everything fucking hurt but for the tiniest of moments, he had felt something flutter within himself

“Venom?” he squeaked

“ _ **Take it easy**_ ” her combat boots came into his field of vision and he suppressed a shudder “ _ **They are recuperating**_ ”.

Eddie grit his teeth and tried a sitting position. He managed after a couple of tries and leant against the hard wall

“Not killing me? Us?”

Did he have to be cocky? He did. He had always been someone’s pain in the ass, he wouldn’t want to disappoint.

“ _ **No. Not for the moment**_ ” She sat cross-legged in front of him, her blood-stained hoodie forgotten somewhere.

She gave him a calculating stare and throw his shirt at him

“What changed your mind?” he could barely see her; both his eyes had swollen close

“ _ **We had connected to Venom using the fragments of the hive mind already connected to your brain. Congratulation, you aren’t a liar!**_ ”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense”

“ _ **They’ll explain you once they’ll recuperate enough. We aren’t against symbiosis per se, but the erratic behaviour of Venom was dangerous for us. We needed to know he wasn’t treacherous for us to let you live**_ ”

“And you had to punch the living shit out of me because?” he hurt all over, but not enough not to be angry

“ _ **Because we needed to release some steam**_ ” they weren't sorry “ _ **You expect us to seek your forgiveness. We will not. We couldn’t communicate for the longest time because of the invasion. We hurt, someone had to pay the price and you were the only one left. This is not your first rodeo and wouldn’t be the last, just get used to it**_ ” she patted his tight

“You are such an asshole” he said and they just shrugged, they really didn’t care about his opinion.

They sat silently for what seemed hours to Eddie. Through the slits of his puffy eyelids he could see the sun had set down

“How is it like? Being one for so long?”

“ _ **Like nothing wecan explain, and you imagine. You think you are a we with them, but you are wrong. You have barely started to explore that. It is the best gift the universe could bestow you**_ ”.

They sat up and, in a flash, they were between his spread legs, teeth bared

“ _ **Don’t fuck up and let us be discovered. We’ll know, and we’ll make sure to destroy whatever slice of life you’ll build for yourself, before we burn you alive**_ ”.

Inside of him Venom tried to bristle but to no avail. The contact with the other symbiote had infused him with a sliver of energy, but not enough to manifest

“I won’t” he tried to move his arms, but they felt like lead

“ _ **Call your friend, the doctor. You might need his help**_ ”.

With that they were on their feet, heading for the door.

Eddie hadn’t wanted to never meet someone again, like he did Strife. And he had killed Riot and Drake.

**Author's Note:**

> Amore mio = my love  
> Amore = lover  
> Ben pasciuto = well-fed


End file.
